In recent years, wind turbines have become more and more important in power generation. As a result, more and more wind turbines are installed. Since the number of profitable sites for wind energy production is limited, there is a tendency to increase the installed power per turbine. Since the installed power is proportional to the diameter of the turbine rotor, the rotor sizes and, accordingly, the turbine sizes increase. As a result, the length of the wind turbine rotor blades increases more and more. Typical blade lengths of current turbine designs are up to 70 meters or more.
When assembling a wind turbine, the rotor blades have to be transported to the construction site by trucks on normal roads. Aside from the insufficient maneuverability of a vehicle transporting a 70 meter rotor blade, road transportation of rotor blades with 70 meters or more is extremely costly. Furthermore, specific routes for the transport have to be followed since narrow curves cannot be passed. Also loading and unloading of very long rotor blades from the truck is difficult. Additionally, sometimes rotor blades have to be transported also by ship or even by means of helicopters.